Most photos that I see of water turtles are taken when they are out of the water basking. Up until now, so have all of mine. That’s because most of the time when we encounter these animals in the water their bodies are obscured by the water. That’s why I was really pleased to see this Florida cooter (Pseudemys floridana) cruising along with just her head above the nearly clear water at the Cedar Lake Botanical Garden. It was really nice to be able to clearly see the algae growing on parts of her dorsal carapace and to see the colors where the algae wasn’t growing. It also never hurts to get reflections when dealing with water, and the stillness of the water where the turtle was made the reflection of her head nearly perfect. All in all, I couldn’t have asked for nicer conditions to capture this photo in. Even though Cedar Lake is mainly focused on plants and flowers, there were definitely things there for the animal lover, too